Sarah Michelson

Dancer-choreographer; queen of lights, sets and steps

Who are your favorite New Yorkers? Sarah Michelson: Margery Grossman and Lulu—my Upper East Side yoga client and her dog—for being the most generous and wise New Yorkers I know and teaching me about the Upper East Side. Richard Maxwell and the New York City Players, who should be on this list if I am. Parker Lutz, DD Dorvillier, Maria Hassabi, Mike Iveson, Greg Zuccolo, Julie Atlas Muz—who are among the many people who make my New York City dancing life worth it. Merce Cunningham. Twyla Tharp.

What’s the biggest thing that’s happened to the city in the past 13 years?Sarah Michelson: Williamsburg.

What’s your personal favorite moment in New York?Sarah Michelson: Parker Lutz stopping me on the street outside the Kitchen after a show I had done and telling me she would like to work with me.

What’s the future of New York? What are your hopes, and what needs to happen?Sarah Michelson: How could any one person know that?

If you could have a drink with anyone else on our Top 40 list, who would it be?Sarah Michelson: I really want to have a drink with Judi Dench and Mike Leigh and Helen Mirren. They’re on the British list. But if I can’t have a drink with them, I would have a drink with Christopher Wheeldon and Elizabeth LeCompte.

What does Time Out mean to you? Sarah Michelson: The advent of Gia Kourlas. You have to write that.

No.Sarah Michelson: Yes.

No.Sarah Michelson: Yes. That is what it means to me. I know it’s awkward, right, but it’s true.

What is a cultural trend you wish would go away?Sarah Michelson: The “individual” by H&M.